CHAPTER 154. SNOWS, BAI, AMA AND UNITED WAY MEETINGS 1983
Blast From The Past: Blizzard of 1983
For a strong Nino winter during 1982-1983, the Blizzard of '83 provided a snowy "treat" to the Delaware Valley, bringing 21.3" of snow to the Airport on February 11th and 12th. Until the Blizzard of '96 and the twin snowstorms this last winter, the February '83 snowstorm was the biggest snowstorm of record in Philadelphia, eking out the 21.0" snowstorm that everyone remembers from Christmas 1909. From Phillyweather.net
On the 27th we held a small party at home for Laurel’s 5th birthday. Evelyn Weinmann and my parents attended. Lois made the birthday cake in the shape of a car. Forming cakes into some favorite object for the kids’ birthdays became a regular tradition.
Laurel lost one of her baby teeth while eating,
The Bank was sending me to AMA (American Management Association) and BAI classes in New York and Washington. Lois was going along for the weekend on to AMA class in Washington. We got to ride the “Biden Train”.
This made for a nice little mini-vacation with lower costs for us. The bank was picking up the tab for the hotel and for my transportation and meal. I had to pay for Lois’ train fair and her meals. Any entertainment we did during the weekend was on my dime, not Wilmington Trust’s but it was still a big savings to us. Oddly, I can’t remember much about this trip, such as what classes I attended. I also don’t have any photos of it. I do remember Lois and I had undisturbed sex every night.
During our time in Washington, Laurel fell and hurt her knees, but she recovered quickly
My dad came down to our place and drove Mr. Heaney’s former car, which we called “the big blue shark”up to Bucktown and parked in down in my parent’s field, where it would sit for years.
On Monday morning and my mom picked her up at the train station while I stayed in DC attended AMA classes through Wednesday before coming back home on Thursday. After I got back, Wilmington Trust published another of my productive books, Japanese Management Style.
Within a period of two decades the term “made-in Japan went from being synonymous with “shoddy juke” to being highly regarded for meaning quality. Some rank quality control and long-term investment as leading causes of Japan having high productivity, and American business persons have begun to look to Japan on tips on how to have better productivity. Americans may feel twinges of chagrin when the Japanese bid on American projects and win them away from American firms, but at the same time they thing, “at least they’ll work.” In recent years, many have decided that if Japanese products work here, perhaps Japanese management style will, too. So after decades of Japanese executives trooping through American firms to learn our management secrets, we have turned the tables and sought a magic formula in Japan.
This was the opening paragraph of my book, Japanese Management Style published by Wilmington Trust in 1983.
doing trade with occupied Japan, you could find a lot of trinkets and cheap items stamped with “Made in Japan”. These things were so poorly made they often fell apart after but slight use. The lot of the imports were gimcracks or prizes given away at carnivals. The Japanese products were so awful they became a joke. If you bought anything and it quickly stopped working, somebody would say, “What was it, made in Japan?” Of course, those old pieces of junk are probably collectors’ items today and cost a small fortune to buy.
But that was the 1940s and 1950s. Things changed. If you recall, my job at the other WTC, Welded Tube Company, disappeared because in the 1970s Japan was dumping steel in the United States. Now, by the 1980s Japan was doing okay financially and their products had gained a reputation as the hallmark of quality, especially in the auto industry. When the Datsun arrived in the USA during 1960 it revised the old “Made in Japan” jokes. (Left, 1960 Datsun ad. Odd fact, the name Datsun was only used in the United States at the time. In the rest of the world the cars were called Nissans, as they are today even in the United States.)
during the 1970s (1970-72 Honda on left). America was still driving about in long, wide boats and here come these funny looking little puddle-jumpers. My friend back then, Dave Mason, had a Honda Civic. Just as I had heard people ask when I owned my 1966 Beetle, he would be asked, “Can that thing make it up the hills?” I personally wondered how he fit his family in the thing, his wife, two kids and three Saint Bernards.
Edwards Deming. He had been sent to Japan after World War II by the State Department to assist with their census. While in Japan he began training engineers, managers and scholars in quality concepts. Eventually he was credited with turning Japan’s economy around and making it the second strongest in the world. A highly valued award given in Japan to companies exerting top quality control and management is called, The Deming Prize.
US Companies were just beginning to take note of his ideas by 1980 and full recognition of his importance didn’t come until a few years before his death in 1993 at the age of 93. In 1987 he received the National Medal of Technology from President Reagan and in 1988 he was given the Distinguished Career in Science Award by the National Academy of Sciences. He is pictured on the right.
My exposure to Dr. Deming and further contacts with Quality Circles expert Richard Toole in Atlanta led me develop a theory of Management Improvement for the banking industry. By mid-1983 I had collected several writings of my ideas and put them together in a book called Tire Teams and Unicycles: Q/P Theory. (Published by Wilmington Trust in 1983.) I was expanding my project management in scope and the role it and I would play at Wilmington Trust over the next several years.
Perhaps the course I had taken at AMA had something to do with Quality. I know at some point I took a course called, The Effect on Cost of Quality Control, which may have been what the New York trip involved.
In July my parents babysat Darryl as we took Laurel and Noelle to Sesame Place for the day. My parents did a lot of babysitting over these early years of parenthood. A lot of the time it was so Lois and I could get away together, but at times it was like this, looking after one child while we did something with the older two.
This was in July, but it wasn’t long before Darryl became the focus of attention. His first birthday came on August 24 and my mom and grandmother came up to General Warren Village for it.
In September of 1983 a new career was added to my duties, show business. Well, sort of anyway. Each year a Chairman was named to head up the United Way campaign for the bank. I am not certain who was the first, because the Chairman was always a manager, who had served the previous year as Vice-Chairman. When the new Chairman took office he or she would name a new Vice-Chairman. And on and on it would continue.
In 1983 my boss, Walk Whittaker (right in photo) became Chairman and he named Joe Jacobs, Vice-President over the Human Resources Department (still called Personnel then, left in photo) as his Vice-Chairman. Since I was Walt’s project Manager he tapped me to put the program together. Some things were expected to be included, such as Beryl Barmore from Personnel explaining how to make a donation (on left is Beryl doing her speech at a meeting.). I knew Beryl, she went to my church and we were friends. We both attended a Bible Study at the First and Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Wilmington. She was also a very excellent singer.
You also had to have some official from the United Way organization appear and talk about their charities, but the rest was quite open. I decided to run a slide show as people entered and got seated. This was accompanied by music. I used “Memory” from Cats that first year I did it. I used Neil Diamond’s “I’m Alive” the next.
Wilmington) When I worked at Mercantile printing years later, I use to eat lunch at their cafeteria.). I then had to coordinate the slides and music. We didn’t have any fancy equipment to create these presentations. I had to recorded the music I used onto a cassette and then time everything out so the slides on the slide projector changed at the right moment of music.
I was walking between agencies in Wilmington one day and tripped over an uneven brick sidewalk. I didn’t fall, but the force of my stumble sent my camera strap off my shoulder and my camera slammed into the bricks. I picked it up and there was a big dent in the one corner and it wasn’t working. The bank paid to have my camera repaired, but it was never quite the same afterward. Every so often a photo would have a black smear down the length of one side.
Our show was popular, considering it was a plead for money. We did set a company record for pledges that year. United Way liked my show so much they asked if they could present it to other companies as a suggest for their presentations. I was asked to be the writer and director of the next year’s show, which I did. In fact, I did a third year after that. Each year we put on our show 34 times in order for every employee to attend.
In my second year of United Way presentations I was also put in charge of scheduling. It can be tricky scheduling over 2,000 employees, working over three shifts. You could not have more than so many at one time from any one unit and you had to consider those working a second or third shift, how to get them in to a meeting and then get everyone committed to their time. We did a couple of the shows on the road for branch personnel working down state, and we did a separate show for the third shift employees. Fortunately, most of those who worked in the wee hours of the morning were in one of our own divisions, Data Preparation.
All-in-all, 1983 was a busy year.
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